Two of South-eastern Europe’s absentees from the previous contest are both showing encouraging signs that they will return in 2015, despite neither broadcaster officially confirming their participation.
The Bulgarian broadcaster is no major surprise as the case was always participation in the event of a lenient budget, but BNT has recently begun updating it’s own Eurovision page, eurovision.bnt.bg, suggesting that Bulgaria may be gearing up for some form of announcement in the coming weeks. Bulgaria has announced its return to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest later this year, and so many signs are pointing towards a similar Bulgarian return to the main contest next May.
Likewise, the Turkish broadcaster TRT has been showing signs of improvement, with a segment about Eurovision broadcast on their evening news on Wednesday, and with a couple of fansites reporting that a Turkish return is imminent. An official statement from the broadcaster still remains but TRT has been far more positive about Eurovision than in the last two years when complains about the voting system and Big 5 kept the populous Eurasian country out of the contest.
Turkey was last represented by Can Bonomo in 2012, finishing 7th. Bulgaria’s last entry came with the artists who achieved the nation’s best result, however Elista and Stoyan could only muster up a 12th place finish in the semi-final in 2013. So far, only Cyprus has announced their return in 2015.
